Join Dr. Matias Flores, Chair of the GradSN, for a public seminar on his dissertation Community Engagement in Chile: A New Generation, Conditioned Legitimacy and Academic Capitalism. Dr. Matias Flores' dissertation explores how a new generation of engaged scholars in Chile navigate a shifting socio-political landscape shaped by recent student movements, constitutional reform efforts, and a national mandate for community engagement accreditation by 2025. Through ethnographic methods and interviews with 52 scholars, the study reveals how these academics balance aspirations for systemic change with the pressures of academic capitalism and institutional legitimacy. Register here!

LEAD California, IARSLCE and GivePulse are proud to announce our next speaker:

Stephanie Brewer, Ph.D., Assistant Director, Community-Engaged Teaching and Learning - Center for Community Engaged Learning, Michigan State University

Moderator: Diane Doberneck, Ph.D., Director for Faculty and Professional Development, Office for Public Engagement and Scholarship; Adjunct Associate Professor, Department of Community Sustainability, Michigan State University

About our Next Speaker: 

Dr. Stephanie Brewer is the Assistant Director of Community-Engaged Teaching and Learning with the Center for Community Engaged Learning, as well as the Program Director for the Community Engagement Scholars. She works with a team responsible for developing, supporting, and advancing academic community-engaged learning at MSU. She supports faculty, students, and community partners in the creation and facilitation of these opportunities. Stephanie worked for many years as a mental health professional before making her way to the field of higher education. Stephanie holds a BS in Psychology from Central Michigan University, a MS in Marriage and Family Therapy from Purdue University, and a PhD in Higher, Adult, and Lifelong Education from Michigan State University. 

Title: Academic community-engaged learning and student mental health and wellness: Understanding the lived experiences of undergraduate students

Abstract: The purpose of this study was to illuminate the experiences of undergraduate students who participated in academic community-engaged learning, specifically as those experiences related to student mental health and wellness. The data for this qualitative Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis (IPA) was collected through semi-structured interviews with seven undergraduate students. Analysis resulted in the identification of essential components of the student community-engaged learning experience as it relates to their mental health and wellness and included three main themes: Identity (Head), Belonging (Heart), and Agency (Hands). The implications of these findings are many, including pedagogical considerations for community-engaged classrooms, campus-wide considerations for the inclusion of high impact practices, as well as community partner implications. Ultimately, the findings of this study will lead to a better informed and nuanced, macro-level strategy that higher education institutions can use to impact the state of student mental health and wellness broadly. 

REGISTER HERE

This one-hour virtual peer-to-peer event hosted by the IARSLCE Graduate Student Network will provide graduate students and early-career professionals with an informal and supportive space to discuss their experiences, challenges, and needs related to community-engaged research, teaching, and practice in today's shifting academic and social landscapes. Together, we'll explore how we're navigating current pressures, identify resources needed, and strategize ways to better support one another and our community partners. Outcomes from this dialogue will help shape future resource-sharing initiatives and inform our upcoming roundtable at the 2025 IARSLCE conference in Durban. Register now!

To join this meeting please access the zoom link here.

Nominations are now being accepted for the 2025 IARSLCE Awards. Nominations are due by April 1, 2025 and should be submitted electronically to awards@iarslce.org. Self-nominations are welcome. All nominees will be notified of their status in April, and award winners will be recognized at the 2025 IARSLCE Conference in Durban, South Africa, August 13-15, 2025. Please help us recognize the outstanding scholars in our field by submitting a nomination!

Click here to learn more!

We are pleased to announce the call for applications for the IARSLCE Graduate Student Scholarship, aimed at supporting travel expenses for graduate students to attend the 2025 IARSLCE Conference in Durban, South Africa, scheduled for August 13-15, 2025.

The IARSLCE Graduate Student Scholarship aims to support graduate students who are conducting research that contributes to the advancement of the field of Service-Learning and Community Engagement (SLCE). We seek students who are committed to the mission and goals of IARSLCE and the Graduate Student Network (GradSN) and who are eager to actively participate in the conference and our ongoing activities.

Scholarship Amount

• Travel within South Africa: $400 per student

• International travel: $800 per student

• Total funding available: Up to $4,000

Eligibility

To be eligible for the scholarship, applicants must:

• Be a current graduate student (MA/MS or PhD/EdD).

• Commit to attending the 2025 IARSLCE Conference in Durban.

• Sign the GradSN Statement of Intent if you have not already done so.

• Strongly encouraged to attend monthly GradSN meetings. We meet on the first Wednesday of every month via Zoom.

Application Requirements

Applicants are required to complete the IARSLCE Graduate Student Scholarship Application Form.

Recipients Requirement

Those who receive the scholarship will be required to be IARSLCE members.  

Evaluation Criteria

Applications will be evaluated based on the following criteria:

• Degree of involvement with GradSN and/or IARSLCE;

• Clarity and specificity of research and practice areas of interest;

• Articulation of the contributions of conference attendance from the applicants;

• Commitment to DEI and Global perspectives in research and practice; and

• Additional contributions and comments provided in the application.

Important Dates

• Application Deadline: April 1, 2025

• Conference Dates: August 13-15, 2025

We are pleased to invite you to a special gathering focused on shaping the North America Research Agenda for the advancement of research in our field. Offered in two parts, the gathering will engage participants in analyzing, organizing, and prioritizing research questions and items that will form the North America section of IARSLCE's Global Research Agenda. 

The North America regional gathering is a three-day event composed of two meetings: (Participants are welcome to attend one or both meetings):

• Sunday, March 30, 10:00 AM - 5:00 PM, Atlanta, Georgia — in partnership with Campus Compact and the Campus Compact 2025 conference. (1-day meeting)

• Thursday, April 3, 9:00 AM - 5:00 PM & Friday, April 4, 9:00 AM - 12:00 noon, Durham, North Carolina — in partnership with Duke Service-Learning and GivePulse. (2-day meeting.)

Lend your voices and perspectives to the research agenda. Attendance is free!

Follow this link for more information on the research agenda and how to register for the gathering.

Questions?  Please contact Andy Furco at afurco@umn.edu

IARSLCE monthly board meeting

IARSLCE monthly board meeting

IARSLCE monthly board meeting

We are pleased to announce that applications to participate in the 2025 Practitioner-Scholar Community are now live. The application is due January 31st, with the cohort beginning in mid-February. The application can be found here, and to learn more about this opportunity, visit our website. The cohort will be capped at 40 participants to ensure capacity for personalized feedback and attention, and selection criteria will center on building a cohesive and committed group of practitioner-scholars with a wide variety of scholarly interests and at varying places in their careers to ensure maximum opportunity for peer learning and feedback during the experience. We look forward to receiving and reviewing applications and welcoming the next cohort to the PSC!

IARSLCE monthly board meeting

Title: Students as Co-researchers: Using Participatory Action Research to Address College Food Insecurity

Dr. Rachel Brand teaches in the Child Studies department at Santa Clara University. Rachel has over a decade of experience teaching community-engaged learning, critical food systems education, and environmental studies. Her scholarship focuses on participatory action research in higher education, student agency and collective action, humanizing education, and food and environmental justice. Rachel holds an MA in Sociology from the University of California Santa Cruz, and an EdD in International and Multicultural Education from the University of San Francisco. 

Moderator: Dr. David Donahue, Professor, School of Education, University of San Francisco

IARSLCE special board meeting to revise the bylaws

IARSLCE monthly board meeting

IARSLCE monthly board meeting

IARSLCE monthly board meeting

IARSLCE monthly board meeting

LEAD California, IARSLCE and GivePulse are proud to announce our next speaker:

This session will be offered with simultaneous translation English - Spanish.
Esta sesión se ofrecerá con traducción simultánea inglés - español.

Carmen Monge Hernández, Ph.D. an engaged scholar (extensionista) at the Universidad Nacional, Costa Rica (UNA). 

Title: The Latin American University in the Society. Analysis of the Relationship Between University and Community from the Capabilities Approach for Human Development.

Co-Moderated by Maria Avila, an independent consultant, collaborative researcher, and relational organizer. Previously an Associate Professor in the Department of Social Work at California State University, Dominguez Hills; & Matias G. Flores a Ph.D. Candidate in Development Sociology at Cornell University and Chair-Elect of the IARSLCE Graduate Student Network.

Register

Session 2: Nurturing Student Mental Health through Community-Engaged Pedagogy

Thursday, Jul 25, 2024

4:00-6:00pm ET/1:00-3:00PT/6:00-8:00am Australia

This session will center pedagogical approaches that foster student mental health and wellbeing within community engaged initiatives. Participants will learn about the current state of student mental health, specifically as it intersects with student participation in community engaged learning experiences. Presenters will highlight effective pedagogical practices that promote student well-being, will share examples of how they have implemented these practices in their own learning spaces, and provide space for discussion and practice. We will then collectively explore ways to prioritize student wellbeing and work to adapt suggested practices to our own diverse campus settings.

Register

Session 1: Take a Step, Pause & Breathe: Look after Your Mental Health, Recharge & Reflect in a Safe Online Space for All Community Engaged Colleagues

As Community Engagement(CE) facilitators, practitioners and faculty, there is always a lot going on and we are always looking to and after others. Take the time to look after yourselves now. Come and meet other global CE staff, listen to speakers focusing on mindfulness, share stories in small groups, and join in mindfulness activities together around this global online campfire session. Refresh, reconnect and celebrate all things related to CE and to you. The primary intended audience for this online session are CE professionals and/or faculty with any level of experience in the field of higher education CE.

Register

IARSLCE monthly board meeting

Register

IARSLCE monthly board meeting

How are doctoral students researching community engagement? What can the field learn from their experience? Graduate students often struggle to find references and methodologies to frame their research projects. They borrow from other disciplines and fields and must navigate the onto-epistemological tensions of weaving in traditional research methodologies with engaged scholarship principles. Engaged-researchers and graduate students studying community engagement are then challenged to identify methodologies that will advance their community-engaged research projects on their own. This webinar will analyze the trends and gaps in research methods of recent doctoral research (36 dissertations on community engagement published between 2018 and 2022) and build on the challenges and insights from the GradSN-sponsored roundtable at the 2023 IARSLCE Conference. Identified challenges included, epistemological, ontological, and ethical challenges, research methods, institutional and structural challenges, and support mechanisms.

Register